Missives of a Baseball Milquetoast

I enjoyed writing about a Buffalo-exclusive last week and am keeping the tradition going today with my Rochester Red Wings "Flower City" custom from the flagship shop. This week's Fresh Fitted Friday selection plays up the team's former affiliation with the Minnesota Twins and their iconic powder blue uniforms, and the team's name itself propels the "flight" theme forward too. Major kudos are due to Rochester for consistently hosting a team called the Red Wings since 1929 without once considering a rebrand. Even more interesting is if you combine the era they were affiliated with the St. Louis Cardinals (1929-1960) with their years with the Baltimore Orioles (1961-2002), that's 74 consecutive years of being a "baby birds" farm team. The interlocking "FC" here is a clear nod to Minnesota's famed "TC" (Twin Cities) logo, and according to sportslogos.net , the Red Wings introduced this "Flower City" alternate...

As I was considering what to cover in this week's post, I thought it might be fun to write about an Air Force-themed cap because today is the anniversary of the signing of the National Security Act of 1947, which marked its establishment as an independent branch of the United States military. While looking through the caps I have not yet written about I noticed the only aviation-related ones have more to do with space travel and I have already earmarked dates for those posts. I did have a Peninsula Pilots retro cap that I've been wanting to highlight for a while and even though they might be named after maritime pilots, I think it's time to let it fly anyway! The New Era flagship store in Buffalo got really close to the original logo here. I will hopefully someday soon get a chance to attend a Coastal Plain League to see the current incarnation of the Peninsula Pilots that plays at War Memorial Stadium in Hampton. No batterman logo here is just fine because the Carolina Lea...

My standard process with the blog is to put forth lighthearted topics on the blog; however, today being the 25th anniversary of the September 11 terror attacks perpetrated on the United States in 2001 is urging me to honor the solemn occasion in a meaningful way in today's Fresh Fitted Friday post. Looking back at the archives, I am surprised that I did not properly commemorate this anniversary in previous years (2015 and 2020) when it occurred on a Friday; however, in my 1921 New York Giants "Roman Pro Cap Co." Retro Cap post , I did at least select a New York team's cap for that 20th anniversary post, which I  published a day early on September 10, 2001. I've written about New York teams recently, so I decided instead to honor Welles Crowther today, who was a volunteer firefighter and equities trader by profession who worked in the South Tower and saved as many as 18 lives during the September 11 attacks. There are many stories of people who lost their lives sav...

Recent posts have been a bit more effusive than what is befitting of a perfunctory Friday dispatch, so with this special "Labor Day" edition of Fresh Fitted Friday post, I solemnly swear to put forth the bare minimum amount of effort to honor the spirit of the holiday. I mentioned in last week's post that my San Francisco Giants would be in town playing the New York Mets, so I am certainly looking forward to catching hopefully two out of three games of that series, but if my schedule were a bit more manageable, I would have made a push to go see Phish play their three-show set at Dicks Sporting Goods Park in Colorado this weekend. Accepting circumstances beyond one's control can be challenging, so as much as I would love to be enjoying good times in Colorado with friends, staying in town to catch some games where my favorite (but terrible) team is playing is a fine option! So while I cannot physically be in Denver this weekend, the Denver Bears cap I am sharing with y...

I have had a memorable month of baseball thus far this August, which was kickstarted by my first-ever trip to Cleveland's ballpark. That was succeeded by a midweek trip to Yankee Stadium when the Seattle Mariners were in town playing the Yankees and followed that up with my first, and likely only, Staten Island FerryHawks game of the year less than a week later. I was also lucky to catch the opening game of the Mets-Padres series at Citi Field and then went back to Yankee Stadium for the middle game of the Yankees-Blue Jays series I mentioned in last week's post. The cherry on top of all these activities was another mid-series game, but this time it was in Queens as I had to watch the Brewers defeat the Mets this past Wednesday. I am hoping for at least two more trips to CitiField this season as the Houston Astros are in town this weekend and my San Francisco Giants will be here to take on the Mets the following weekend. The Giants and Mets are both terrible this year, so tha...

With the 2026 MLB regular season slowly winding down, I cannot help but reflect on all the fun games I have been to thus far. While it has worked out that I have already been to eight games at CitiField, my totals at Yankee Stadium will only reach half that amount tomorrow as I plan to see the Toronto Blue Jays during their second and final scheduled series in the Bronx this year. I always enjoy seeing the Jays, and this upcoming game is could get spicy because I am rolling in with a crew comprised of two Toronto fans and one Boston Red Sox fan. I caught the Red Sox last season on one of their trips to New York in 2025, but the only Jays game I was able to get to that year was rained out, so considering all this, tomorrow will be extra special. A fair amount of consideration goes into the selection of the caps I wear to ball games, but as you might imagine, the esoteric logos of former Mets and Yankees affiliates do not exactly inspire their fans in New York to stop me in my tracks to ...